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HAH what rubbish. Judging books by their covers is what makes up 83% of the fun being a bookworm. I thoroughly enjoy my trips to the bookstore or library that consist of me running up and down the aisles (I’m a very rebellious bookworm you see, watch me run in a library) picking out all the shiny looking books. This is frequently how I choose what to buy. Some of my prettiest purchases have been All Our Yesterdays and The Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb. They look simply marvellous on my shelf.

But this is not a post to drool over pretty books or prod arguments with sticks to work out whether cover judging is a worth while pastime (it is). No. Today, we are going to celebrate the UGLY books! *throws confetti* That is, the ugly books that are magnificent stories.

Every now and then I go mad and decide to read the blurb of a book or listen to someone’s suggestion and delve into a book with a failed Botox episode for a cover. I’m also going to look at books that have worrisome or misleading covers. So yes, let’s have a look at the ugly ducklings who are, in fact, swans to be. Continue reading →

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The University of Western Australia

I thought some of you might be interested in what I’m studying at university this semester so here I am to tell you about it. Perhaps some of you are history lovers like me and going to uni soon or maybe you’re just curious to see what I’m doing with my life. So allow me to tell you.

UWA Campus

For starters, I’m studying (as you can see above) at the University of Western Australia and I’m currently completing my Undergraduate – a BA (Bachelor of Arts). I’m doing History as my major and the Italian Language as my second major. You don’t have to do a second major but (obviously) you do have to do a major – that’s what your whole degree is about. I’ve decided to do Italian as my 2nd because it was easy enough to do and will be nice proof at the end of my degree that I can, in fact, speak Italian. Am I fluent now? No, I’m not fluent however I spent one month in Italy studying the language last year and I’m perfectly able to hold a conversation. After two years of working my butt off it feels damn good to be able to say that. Continue reading →

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The goal for today was to post some book reviews, but I went to the cinema instead to see The Danish Girl (9/10 – excellent movie) so you know, change of plan! Luckily for me, an order arrived so I thought I’d share it with you so we can all squee in excitement.

I placed an order on RedBubble a week and a bit ago and it has arrived!! In fact, it all came a lot quicker than I thought it would. Perhaps you are a reader in a country where the postal service can do that magic thing where things arrive the next day (I literally cannot imagine that) but here in Australia, and my fellow Aussie readers I’m sure will sympathise, “quick shipping” means “wow, it got here within 2 weeks!”. RedBubble is absolutely AWESOME because its shipping costs are actually reasonable. Which means I can afford to buy things from it every now and then, which is great news for me and bad news for my wallet.

So what did I buy? I’m a geek at heart and a huge Disney fanatic (why does ‘fanatic’ sound so much more scary than ‘fan’ when that’s just an abbreviation of it? The mysteries of the universe!), so of course nothing I buy is ever normal. And by normal I mean, a pretty pattern or picture. No, no, no, my pillows, mugs, books, bags, and 80% of my t-shirts HAVE to have a reference. Otherwise what’s the point? Continue reading →

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Okay so this isn’t strictly bookish so I must apologise for disappointing you. However, I do think that something about mug collecting is bookish – although looking at mine you’ll detect strong vides of Disney and Doctor Who . . . I’m working on it. In fact! Next time I go mug shopping (very serious business) I’m planning on raiding from THIS store (you’re welcome) at Society6 (an awesome website, if I may say so) to buy some specifically book related mugs. Yup. I’m that cool.

But anyway, everyone loves geeky stuff . . . right? Well I do. I love mugs and other shenanigans that are individual and geeky so much (but not more than books, of course). In fact, I find mug-buying somewhat extraordinarily exciting and I thought you might just enjoy looking at my little collection as much as I do.

Now because we all have short attention spans, I’m only going to post about my mugs . . . today. However, if you would like to see all my other paraphernalia (namely, Doctor Whom merchandise, etc) then I’m more than happy to do a bit of show and tell on that too. If I’m being honest, I’ll probably just do it anyway. Try and stop me, *runs into the sunset*. Do let me know if you’re really eager to look at my Dalek salt and pepper set and my bike clock anyway, because, you know, they’re pretty cool.

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If there is anything that I love more than eating chocolate, it would have to be buying books. I love reading books, I love looking at books, I love smelling them (shh, it’s not weird, okay?), and buying them, for me, is the equivalent of letting a child loose in Disney Land. Okay, maybe that was a slight exaggeration . . . nothing beats Disney Land, unless it’s a really big haul of books – but let’s not go in circles.

The bottom line is that I’ve put myself on a book buying ban – and so far have only broken it twice: round of applause, please. Currently, there are 146 books sitting on my shelf that I have bought that I have not read. Whew. So, that’s a lot of books. I actually attempted some maths a while back (I know, it was an adventurous day) and estimated that to read all of those would probably take me another 2-3 years. So I’m planning on defying laws of mathematics and reading all those little goodies on my shelf much, much faster than that. *revs engine*

But that does mean that I needed to call an intervention with myself and make the executive decision to stop buying books just for a little bit. That decision has been in effect since the 2nd of August 2015 – it’s now almost November, achievement or what! My goal is to make it until the 25th of December (Christmas, yay!) whereupon I shall buy any book my heart desires and place all of those new shinies along with my Christmas presents (which are bound to be books) upon a new bookcase that I’m also planning on investing in just after Christmas. Guess where all my savings are going . . .

So that is why you (hopefully) won’t be seeing a book haul for a little while but I would like to share with you all the books I currently have sitting on my shelf so once I work out how, exactly, to do that I will share it with you!

I usually buy books in paperback because in Australia hardbacks are quite expensive – but I am planning on investing in some hardbacks for those very special books/authors that I collect.
But for now, these are the top ten books that I most want to buy next:

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After a lot of contemplation I’ve finally decided to give this a go and start up my own shiny corner of the internet where we can all squee over books together. I’m going to post here as regularly as I can and keep you updated on my book world – what I’m reading, what I want to read, what I own, what I’m buying, and all other fun bookish things! But first, a little be about me, eh?

I’m nineteen years old, studying History and the Italian language at University. I live in Australia and, obviously, I love books. I love a whole range of things but my two primary loves are historical fictions and YA (with fantasy pulling in at a very close third). I love dragons, I love sassy heroines, and I love magic. If you want to see more that I’ve read and reviewed in the past, check out my Goodreads page – I’ve been there for years. Like many other booklovers, I have/am attempting to write my own book – it’s a fantasy/YA sort of thing that’s been in the wood works since I was 12 . . . yup. I’ll get there one day, guys, one day!

My favourite book is Tiger’s Curse by Colleen Houck and has been for a long while now! Whilst it really doesn’t need to be said, I’ll go ahead and say it anyway, Harry Potter is a life-long love of mine (and I’m actually trying to read it in Italian now! Yes, it is as trying as it sounds). Other notable mentions are the His Fair Assassin trilogy by Robin LaFevers, the Throne of Glass series by the one and only Sarah J. Maas, and the Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa. And I could probably ramble on about all the other books I love but let’s just stop there for now.

I feel I should explain two things first: my username (ozbooksnail) and my tagline (Upside down books). Firstly, ozbooksnail, or, Oz Book Snail, came about from a frustrating episode on Twitter when I attempted to think of a snappy username and fell short. I’ve always considered myself a slow reader (in comparison to others) so I thought I’d play around with the expression ‘book worm’ (which, in Italian, translates to Library Mouse – cute huh?!) and use ‘snail’ instead, because har har it’s a slow animal/bug/thing. And Oz because I’m from Australia, not the Wizard of Oz. Upside down books is simply because Australia is at the ‘bottom’ of the world – so I guess that makes everything upside down here, tah dah! There you go!

I can’t wait to talk books with you all and I hope you enjoy all of my bookish rambling to come!